Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1887-12-17
CONFESSION OF 4 .FIEND.
A sorrowful Story of How 4 Yot;ng Maj
Was Ruined,

| Was Ruined.
But few realize the great uulnbsr OF
American youth that are becoming opium
fends. Yesterday reporter recognized in
a restaurant young man whom he had
known some years ago, as bright-eyed,
laughing, honest lad, in happy home in
the foothills of Ell Dorado county. After
hand-shake, the reporter, seeing that the
young man had every appearance of being
an opium tlend, spoke TO the latter about
| 1t. He freely admitted that he was a con-
firmed opium smoker, that his health was
gone, his constitution broken, his friends
who had tried to save him had deserted
hlm, the habit having such hold on him
that he must either have the drug or die,
and consequently all their attempts to re-
claim him were unavailipg.
" Where, how, when and under what cir
| cumstances did you contract this vice
which makes you look like a walking ca
daver?n
The young man asked the reporter to
take seat, saying: III tell you all
about it. You know my people-you know
l have as good parents as any boy ever
had, and you know also that they need my
assistance. You know my sister, loving,
gentle, atfectionate, she should have a
brothers care. You know me. You know
that left school at the head of my class
that | was respected by every one and was
the pride of my parents. When l left
school, strong, athletic, full of vigor and
promise, my ambition was 10 be some
body; to be of use to others and TO care for
and protect those nearest and dearest to me-
started in all right, and would have sue
ceeded had l not formed the habit of cigar
cite smoking. Talk about liquor, alcohol
never did the harm in the United States
that cigarette smoking is doing to-day. The
youth escaped intemperance; it was only
those of middle age that fell victims to the
flowing bowl, but with cigarette smok-
ing it is different. Little boys,
nine, ten, and eleven years old, |
are smoking cigarettes. When they are
smoking cigarettes they are smoking
opium, and have taken the first step, which, |
if not arrested early, will lead them on to
that hopeless condition in which you see
me to-day-a wreck mentally and physi- |
cally, tit only to fill suicides grave / re-
member the first pack of cigarettes | ever
bought. remember well the man who
sold them to me, and / will die with q
curse upon my lips against him. If be
had, instead of selling me that slow but
brain, what suffering would have been
avoided by me and mine. 1t is true that
the cigarette is not made up entirely of
opium. Cigarettes are made from the
stumps of cigars gathered from every filthy
spittoon in the land and sent to these
manufacturing centers. In order to make
them palatable, this tobacco from millions
OF filth pots, is soaked in decoction of
opium, which imparts to it peculiar and
pleasant taste, and which is the first step
TO the habit They are sold cheap, indecent
photographs are put in the packages to
assist the sale, and the boy who can beg or
steal five cents, steals behind the barn or in
the alley, and enjoys his smoke A few
weeks, or few months passes; he smokes
several packages a week, he hunts China
town for the pipe, and that boy is as COM
pletely buried as though he was laid away |
in your city cemetery, so far as any good |
that he will do for himself or his friends. |
There is but one end for the cigarette |
smoker, and that is to be vagrant. You |
will observe that all opium fiends are con-
slant cigarette smokers. ANY of them will |
tell you, as l have, that they smoke them |
for the opium that is in them, and for no |
other reason. A parent who allows his boy !
to smoke cigarette must not blame the |
child If he becomes tiend."